Image above: Bastienne Schmidt, Coils, Vietnam, 2014. Courtesy of Ricco Maresca Gallery.

Ricco/Maresca presented last week Topography of Quiet, a book launch and exhibition of new work by internationally renowned mixed media artist Bastienne Schmidt. In Topography of Quiet Schmidt explores the subtle and continuous interaction between nature and imagination through painting, drawing and photography. Inspired by natural patterns and typologies she discovered during her extensive travels to Egypt, Vietnam, Japan, Burma and Greece, the artist utilizes the camera, pencil and paintbrush to trace the impacts the environment has on our imagination. Her paintings and drawings are coupled with abstracted photographic compositions in an attempt to reveal the rhythms and patterns that shape the physical and psychological space around us. By combining the notions of traveling both in real life and in her imagination Schmidt aesthetically documents space as a reflection of her personal search for identity and place.

Bastienne Schmidt, Highway Topos, 2014, mixed media on paper. Courtesy of Ricco Maresca Gallery.

Bastienne Schmidt is a Germanborn artist based in New York City. Raised between Greece and Italy, she spent her childhood surrounded by her father’s archeological work, which instilled in her a desire to organize, map, and attempt to understand systems through her artwork. Her work has been shown in over 80 exhibitions among them the International Center of Photography in New York, The Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and the Southeast Museum in Photography in Daytona Beach, Florida. She is in the public collections of Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, NY Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Guild Hall, Easthampton, NY; International Center for Photography, New York, NY and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, among others. She has published five monographs and was awarded the best Photo Book Prize in Germany in 2005.